Saturday, December 14, 2013

I
believe athletes are some of the toughest individuals on earth. On a day-to-day basis, we handle physical and
mental hardships that tear us down.
Then, with courage and willpower, we rebuild ourselves in order to take
on even greater challenges. There is no
amount of weight that would make me cower and slow my pull. I attack everything, every challenge, with
the mindset that there is no scenario where I am not victorious. Sometimes I fail and feel hurt, but the
amount of pain is no bigger than a pinprick because I know 2016 is the bigger
picture.

160kg Snatch from 2013 Senior World Championships

This
past World Championships I suffered a shoulder injury that will require a
surgical repair.That news was tough to
swallow because 2013 was by far my best year of weightlifting.I made two international teams and lifted
some huge personal records.I’m also
sitting at three kilos away from the American record snatch in the 105kg class,
which I have dreamed of breaking ever since I started this sport.So the slap in the face from reality stings a
little bit: surgery on Tuesday, December 17th, and then 4-6 months
of rehab.My shoulder dislocation didn’t
hurt that much and I’m sure surgery won’t hurt either; but reality is sometimes
more painful than anything.Reality is
that surgery won’t be fun.Reality is
that rehab will be a long, slow process.I could even miss my goal of being back to lifting by April, but in the
eyes of an athlete there are no losing scenarios.

My deeper reality is that everything is going to be ok. My entire body is going to have time to rest and heal, to be ready for the long road to Brazil. Going through this experience will strengthen
my mind and get me more focused than ever on my goals. My coach, Zygmunt, will have ample time to
break down my technique and strengthen my weaknesses so that when I attempt
that 175kg snatch, I am a well-oiled machine.
In all seriousness, this is a blessing in disguise. A Paralympic Skier Ralph Green once told me:
“A setback is setup for a comeback.” My
comeback has started and when I return to the platform you will see a stronger
more tenacious lifter. Winter is coming.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The end of July was my 4-year anniversary
at the Olympic Training Center. I am so grateful
to have been given the opportunity to be a resident athlete for so long. During
my time at the OTC I have seen many athletes come and go and to be one of the
few still standing after 4 years is such an honor. This facility has been my rock for so long
and I am happy to be able to call it my home.
Deciding to dedicate my life to the athlete lifestyle was not an easy
choice for me to make, but it has turned out to be one of the smartest decision
I have ever made.

Many people don’t know that my stay
at the training center almost got cut short after 6 months. It wasn’t a performance issue, but an issue
of confidence. I wasn’t sure I had what
it took to succeed in the Training Center environment. I started training almost double the amount
of times I did back home and the level of coaching I received was just
something I was not prepared for mentally.
After my first 2 months of training I started to break down physically. I had never had been asked to train while my
body was hurting. Having to push through
pain started to break me down mentally.
After about 4 months of hardest training I had ever done I cracked and
became depressed. I was so depressed
that over the course of a month I slept 3 hours a night and dropped 12 kilos of
body weight. My training was suffering tremendously.
I had mentally given up on my Olympic dream, but there was still hope for me.

December of 2009 I ran into someone
who I never thought would change my life.
I was back home for Christmas break from the OTC and on the way to my
workout ran into a guy named Mike I had played football with in high school. We hated each other with a passion all of
high school and at that moment I was pretty bummed to be approaching him on the
street. Mike was a talented athlete and
everyone just knew he would be a professional athlete in some sport down the
road. I decided to be an adult and ask
mike how life was since high school graduation.
He began to tell me how he decided not to go to college and that he was
on his way to go smoke weed with some friends.
That moment changed me forever.
Mike was one of the smartest most athletic kids at my school and just
threw his talents away to smoke weed with some friends everyday. It was then I decided I wasn’t going to
through away what had been given to me.
I was given the chance to follow in the footsteps of some of the
greatest athletes that had ever lived.

I happily returned the next year to the Olympic Training Center after
fighting a lot of demons on the subject.
I came back more motivated and ready to take on all the challenges that
were laid out in front of me. Three and half
years later I can proudly say there is no better place for an athlete to
train. I want to take a moment to thank
all the people who believed in me and supported me during the first 4 years of
my Olympic journey. I also want to
thank those who are still pushing me to be the best lifter and person I can
be. I look forward to what the next 4
years of my Olympic Dream have to offer.

Sunday, July 14, 2013

One of the more enjoyable parts of living at the Olympic
Training Center is sitting around and swapping stories with other athletes.
Some are funny stories about life training as an elite athlete – facing difficult
conditions in other countries, having run-ins with teammates and training
partners, or sharing parts of your past that most people don’t know about. On a
night last week, the stories got pretty personal and made me think of one I
thought I should post here.

For those of you that don’t know, I grew up in
the foster care system. It was probably one of the most impactful
situations on my life. I’m going to drop a bomb on you guys
right now; I was in foster care from 6 days old until I aged out of the system
when I was 18 years old, and I will be honest, it wasn't all sunshine and
rainbows. Regardless of how it was, it certainly molded me into the man I
am today. I strongly believe grinding through the hard times growing up
makes grinding through the hard times of weightlifting a lot more manageable. I
say manageable because weightlifting isn’t just tough, it’s hands
down the hardest thing I have ever done. If you don't think weightlifting
is tough then you must not be working hard enough or just don't have a
Polish coach.

One valuable lesson I learned in foster care was
how to show some fight. I think most people would agree that I am a pretty nice
person. Like most of us I have my moments when I can be not so nice, but
that is rare. When I was in elementary school I will admit, I was a pretty
big pushover. I wasn't losing my lunch money every day but I just never stood
up for myself. I would come home a little roughed up sometimes and my foster
mom would get pretty upset with me because I would never fight back. I
just never wanted to get detention or suspended from school.

On one particular occasion I got into an
altercation with a kid who lived about a block from my house. I can't remember
what we fought over but like most fights, it
was because something totally stupid. I think it started because he said
he could beat me up and I swore he couldn't, and then one of the neighborhood
kids said to prove it and that sparked the brawl. As it turned out I was wrong,
I ended up getting my ass kicked pretty badly. When I returned home my foster
mom was furious, so furious that she said, "Take your sorry ass back
outside and fight that kid again, and don't come back until you win."

After getting worked pretty bad I wasn't looking
forward to going back outside but I feared my foster mother way more then this
little 12-year-old kid. I would like to tell you I went back outside and wiped
the floor with him but that was not the case. I put up a little more fight the
second time but in the end it was the same result. This was the trend for
months; two fights for the price of one. I know she just wanted to teach
me to be tougher but I thought she was giving me a free pass to fight as much
as I could. I grew a fighting mentality that I never knew I had.

I felt like a lot of the rage and pent up anger, about the situation I was in, was finally coming out. I would find
myself picking fights for no reason. Simple gestures would spark my aggression and
I would find myself in a fight with every kid that walked up to me. My foster mother
got pretty fed up with that real quick. I was probably getting into
fights with someone from school on a day-to-day basis. It was definitely
one of those situations when you give someone an inch and they take a
mile.

To make a long story short, my foster mother
got so fed up with me getting into fights that she went Megatron on me and I
lost the war for Cybertron (video game reference). After a few brawls with
her I hung up my gloves and stepped out of the ring for good. She
wanted me to learn how to stick up for myself and I clearly took advantage of
the situation. I don’t think I have been in any kind of fight since the 8th grade because I now see how stupid getting into fights
was. Also, being one of the stronger people in the US, I could
probably do a little damage.

The only fighting I do these days is in the weight
room. Coach Zygmunt says if someone has the will to fight anything is
possible. Maybe it’s a good thing I found weightlifting because it gives
me something to fight in. Becoming a World or Olympic Champion isn’t
easy so I will fight on.